Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (1918)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Highly Overrated But Still Good

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

After watching a few films of her, I have to say Mary Pickford is not at her best in this movie. Mainly, this is because of the weak plot, which doesn't always seem to be coherent, especially the triangle love story, when you think about it. Furthermore, the film tries to be moralistic and funny at the same time, which doesn't seem to work really well either. However there are one or two funny scenes, whenever the washer family's mother is depicted. However, even there, it is just about exploiting stereotypes to get a few cheap laughs, or so it seems. In my opinion, one major problem are the monotone settings of the scenes, which do not vary enough to make the whole movie more interesting. All in all, it does only take an hour to watch it, but I think there are better films from 1918 than this one.

Mary Pickford gives a most delightful performance in this story about a young girl living with her mother and younger brothers. Her mother is an Irish laundrywoman and supports the family by taking in wash, while Amarilly is a working-class girl who works hard scrubbing and cleaning. When the theater she cleans is burnt down, Amarilly takes a job as a cigarette girl at the popular Cyclone Cafe, where her boyfriend works as a bartender. When a wealthy young man is injured during a brawl at the Cafe, the caring Amarilly takes him home to nurse his wounds. Unfortunately Amarilly's beau misunderstands and believes she is in love with the wealthy fellow. The young man is very interested in the spunky girl and offers her a job cleaning his apartment, where his rich, snobby Aunt takes it upon herself to experiment with Amarilly, and tries to teach her high-class manners needed to live among the wealthy high-society. Knowing her nephew is in love with Amarilly she invites her family to a social party to embarrass the girl. Amarilly is proud of her hard-working Irish family and always having good sense, she realizes she will always be a great deal happier married to the Irish lad she loves. This story works so well due to the charming script written by Frances Marion that is enhanced by director Marshall Neilon's typical clowning humour. The conflicts dealing with the upper class reformers in this story are cleverly examined with light comedy and satire. Pickford gives an especially lovely performance, along with Kate Price who is extremely delightful as the Irish mother. All of the supporting actors deserve praise for the fine performances they give of their characters. I really enjoyed this story of a young girl who gives up the opportunity to marry into wealth, and stays faithful and proud in the end to her one true love. Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley is one of Mary Pickford's underrated gems, but stands out as one of her most brilliant films. I highly suggest this film is worth watching.

Earlier in the century, Mary Pickford made a ton of short films for Thomas Ince and D.W. Griffith. They were well made for that time period, but frankly, today they are rather preachy and simplistic. The truly great films Pickford was to make wouldn't be made until the late teens and 1920s. AMARILLY was made just before all these amazing full-length films. She was definitely a star, but was just on the verge of mega-stardom. You can easily see that this film has much of the style of these later films but isn't quite the same stellar quality. Because of this, I see it as a bit of a transitional film. For her best stuff, try watching DADDY LONG LEGS (just one year later) or her great films of the twenties (such as SUDS, MY BEST GIRL and SPARROWS).AMARILLY is a moralistic story due to its direction and style. The film cuts back and forth between the sweet but poor folks (Amarilly and her family) and the stuck up rich folks. It is all very "black and white" and really wasn't subtle at all. Such a style would be all but dead by the twenties--it was just too preachy and unrealistic.Amarilly is dating a guy for three years in the most chaste relationship in film history--three years and not even a kiss between them!! However, a shallow rich guy discovers this plucky girl (is Pickford anything other than plucky??) and he is captivated by her. Eventually, he even wants to marry her but it all falls apart because his rich aunt and her friends look down on Amarilly and her family's simple ways. In the end, she goes back to her sweet boyfriend and lives happily ever after--thus illustrating the message that people should stick to their own social class! Overall, it is entertaining but I don't recommend it to those who aren't acquainted with Pickford's work. That's because the film isn't particularly artistic or well made by later Pickford standards. Try watching the films I previously mentioned first. For those who are familiar with her films, then by all means see this movie--it is worth seeing and entertains.

This is a great silent film and I very much liked Mary Pickford in it. Its basically about a working girl with a widowed mother and her siblings, she works as a cigarette girl at a bar and meets a wealthy guy. When he gets in a fight she takes care of him.This upsets her boyfriend, and she begins to fall in love with the wealthy guy. However things turn sour when he takes her home to his socialite aunt, who wants to "improve" her. This movie is also a satire of wealthy people and makes fun of them.Things go terribly wrong and she must then decided if its the trouble going through all this just for a guy.This would've been different had it been in present day America, but this was the 1920's and I think that the film was smartly written.